Hi,

In the news and rumours article on the new sponsors of the park it is mentioned that Ben & Jerry's and the other ice cream brands are part of the Nestlé group. These brands however are owned by Unilever. Which made me wonder if the sponsorship with Nestlé has been ended entirely or only for the ice cream. Because both Nestlé and Unilever as sponsor seems not very likely.

Bastiaan

HI Bastiaan,

thanks for the correction - this is what happens if you write a news late at night half asleep. I have corrected the news-item and in the meantime also our sponsor-ship overview. In the latter I also corrected the mistake, that Minute Maid was listed under Nestlé instead of Coca-Cola among the sponsors - anyone who has further corrections, additions etc.: mail me or just post it here ... THANKS


Regarding the competition between Nestlé and Unilever: yep, it is a strange situation. But if Nestlč reduced its sponsorship deal it must have anticipated this development. Afterall Unilever is (at least in Germany) through its brand "Langnese" one of the most common sponsors / partners for amusement and theme parks.

Still right now everything indicates that Nestlč is continuing a (even so more limited) sponsoring relationship with DLRP. At least the park maps as being handed out right now still list Nescafe and Vittel as sponsors of selected restaurants. But this might change, after all the Unilever brands were not yet listed in there, instead the locations didn't have any sponsor listed at all. It should be interesting to take a look at the offerings at the sales carts for ice cream. The three locations mentioned as being sponsored by Unilever brands already have changed their offerings to those of the sponsors. But what about the sales carts which are offering prepackaged ice cream. Are those provided by Nestlé??

For the background of the decision it might also be interesting to take a look at the international website of Nestlé which lists its ice cream brands: http://www.nestle.com/Our_Brands/Ice_Cream/Overview/Overview.htm
Based on that info it seams as if Nestlé is not operating any strong pan-european ice cream brands. So the sponsorship deal in this area might just have been of no real value to them (except for keeping Unilever at bay).


Yours

Dirk

From the News & Rumours section:

"With its ice cream brand "Langnese" (which it does not feature at DLRP so far) Unilever is already a frequent sponsor of numerous theme and amusement parks across Europe."

Unilever isn't going to like that misconception. You see, their aim is to have the whole world cognisant of the "Heartbrand", which is the ice cream brand that's known as Langnese in Germany (and only Germany), Miko in France, Good Humor in the US, Wall's in the UK and so on and so on. You'll know the Heartbrand by the heart shaped logo (obviously).

At the moment, both The Ice Cream Company and Fantasia Gelati (through sub-brand Carte d'Or) are sponsored by the Heartbrand.